Tree Climbing
by Disappearing1
Summary: My friend prompted me with “Mal and Zoë sitting in a tree”. Well I got the tree part down.


Title: Tree Climbing

Author: Disappearing1

Rating: G

Disclaimer: Don't own them. Just like to play with them sometimes.

Characters: Mal, Zoë

Pairing: N/A

Time Line: Pre series, pre war.

Spoilers: None really

Summery: Tree climbing on Shadow.

* * *

Natural born tree climber. She was always faster and better at it than he. That's why he liked her. All the other girls lived in their dresses. They giggled and whispered. Not Zoë. She didn't giggle. She laughed full of life and sound. And she liked to climb trees. As soon as her feet hit ground they'd be bare. She loved the earth. Didn't matter if it'd just rained the ground sloppy or if it was rock hard and burning from the sun beating down on it; her feet were going to feel it.

Her hair was always out, and wild, as the wind played in it. She loved to feel the wind. When it didn't blow she ran and spun trying to take it in all at once. He had to tell her to tie it down when she got it caught in the branches one too many times. Two big braids her mama had to fight to get in her head. When her ma finally turned her loose she'd rush out of the mouth of her pa's ship and into the branches of that tree.

There was one gnarled Weeping Willow tree in particular that Zoë loved. She always said it was the best climbing tree that had ever grown. He asked her how she even known anything about planting and growing; she didn't even live on a planet. She'd get this look on her face that was two parts angry and one part hurt. After she pushed him in the dirt she'd tell him she knew this tree. She'd tease him about being a planet born farm boy who couldn't climb as fast or high as she could.

He told her, "It's not that at all darlin'; it's just that us planet dwellers have to worry about a little thing called gravity." And she told him, "I do know what gravity is, Malcolm Reynolds. _I'm_ not the moon-brain." He smiled up at her through the leaves and branches and could hear the smugness in her voice. Sometimes she made it too easy.

"Of course you're not a moon-brain. Moon-brains would know what gravity is and what it does to a body when it falls outta high places, such as trees. All you know about is that fake stuff you have on the _Desert Rose._"

"Don't talk about my Pa's ship like that! You're just jealous, cause all you have is this dinky old rock you can't ever leave, and I got all this!" She pointed to the darkening sky.

He frowned at that. The way her family would talk about the black had always made Mal kind of envious. And he prayed about it like a good God fearing boy was taught to. But still ... he wondered. "And stop calling me that." She added the last in a bit of a huff.

"There's no need to get sore, darlin'. We gotta be heading back anyway. Days ain't as long as they use to be. Sides, you been up in that tree playing like a space-monkey for near two hours!"

"Mal Reynolds, you don't even know what a monkey is. Not like you ever saw one before. Not on this planet." Mal practically heard the eye roll in her voice. He'd been around her long enough to know that she was goading him, and smirked.

"No, darlin', you're right. I ain't ever seen a monkey before … but I know they climb trees. Now come on outta that thing. It's time to head on home."

He glanced up again, trying to catch her figure beyond the brightness of the last sunspots. All he could see were empty branches swaying in the breeze. He peered at the ground below to check for her there: nothing.

"Awww, Come on darlin', don't play around. I was just joking about the moon-brain thing. Come on out darlin'. Zoë?"

He stood still for a while and listened for her. All he heard was the summer wind blowing in the trees. All of a sudden Mal felt a tremendous weight land on his shoulders. Everything swirled as the ground rushed up to meet him. He landed hard on his chest as the breath was knocked out of him. He was then turned over viciously, the impact causing his shoulder blades to scream in pain. She was sitting on his hips, pinning his shoulders down with the heels of her hands; smile as big as the suns.

"Don't call me "darlin'"."


End file.
